The Blues’ season could come down to the four-game home stand that begins tonight against the Dallas Stars. After hosting the Stars tonight, the team will face San Jose Thursday, Detroit Saturday and Minnesota Sunday at Scottrade Center.

By Sunday, the Blues could be in a playoff spot, or they could be well out of the playoff picture.

“It’s probably the biggest week of the year for us,” Blues center Andy McDonald said. “We’ve got some tough opponents, but these are the guys you have to beat. We’re not fazed by the challenge ahead of us. We know we’re capable of beating these teams.”

Some Blues believe it might be beneficial that the team is playing a couple of the top teams in the West on this home stand. The Blues, for example, are 1-1-1 against San Jose (42-12-10) this season, but are 0-3 against Los Angeles (29-28-9).

“For some reason, our team usually plays its best games against the top teams,” Blues forward B.J. Crombeen said. “We’ve proven that we can beat any team in this league and we’re going to have to be ready for each one. Right now, our focus is just on Dallas, though . . . get those two points and move forward.”

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Blues forward T.J. Oshie did not skate this morning with the team, but he is expected to play tonight. In fact, Oshie could be on a line with Patrik Berglund and David Perron against the Stars. Remember it was against Dallas on Feb. 26 when that line erupted for two goals on back-to-back shifts in the third period, leading the Blues to a 3-1 win.

I asked Murray this morning that when he puts his lines together, if he considers the past success a particular line had against an opponent.

“You want to know if the kids are going to play together tonight,” Murray asked. “I’ve coached a lot against (Dallas coach) Dave Tippett and I’ve worked with him for a long time. He’s looking at our lineup trying to figure out, ‘How can I configure things so that I get an edge?’ The bottom line is you’ve got to play your own game. You’ve got to be comfortable with what you’ve got. That’s what we’ll do tonight.”

Murray wasn’t going to reveal his lines, but there were indications that Oshie, Perron and Berglund would play together.

My uneducated guess at the lines:

Keith Tkachuk-Andy McDonald-Brad Boyes

David Perron-Patrik Berglund-T.J. Oshie

Alex Steen-Jay McClement-B.J. Crombeen

Brad Winchester-David Backes-Cam Janssen

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There was consideration to playing defenseman Tyson Strachan tonight, but who would sit out? The 4-5-6 defensemen haven’t played well, but they haven’t played as poor lately as the 1-2-3 defensemen. Barret Jackman admitted in the Post-Dispatch this morning that he hasn’t been up to par lately.

“The last few games, I don’t think I’ve been as strong as I’ve been in the past,” Jackman said. “This is the time when we really need everybody, especially myself, to step up.”

The Blues also haven’t been happy with Roman Polak. Murray wants Polak to stick with a defense-first mentality, and Murray had an interesting way of making that point to Polak this morning.

Some of you are aware that Murray will blow the whistle at any point during practice. When he does, everyone skates as fast as they can to wherever Murray is on the ice. The last player there has to skate a lap around the rink. Well this morning, Murray positioned himself on the ice and blew the whistle where he hoped Roman Polak would be the last player to the circle. Polak was and skated the extra lap.

“When he came in, I said, ‘Now Roman, you got it out of your (system) . . . you don’t have to carry it end to end tonight . . . you got your full lap out of the way . . . just play defense tonight,’” Murray said. “He kind of laughed.”

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The Blues have allowed 13 goals in their last three games, and the reason why is obvious. The team has given up more quality scoring chances in the past five games. 

Tonight is the Blues’ 66th game of the season.

According to Murray, the average number of scoring chances given up this season

Games 1-41: 14.2

Games 41-60: 11

Games 61-65: 16.4

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The Peoria Rivermen have won four straight games and pulled to within a point of Chicago for the fourth and final playoff spot in the West Division. Goaltender Manny Legace has been a big part of the Rivermen’s success.

Legace is 5-5 with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .926 save-percentage.

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If you get a chance, check out the website defensefirst.com . . . Blues defenseman Mike Weaver created the website and helps run the summer camp, which runs the last week of July. The camp is for players 111-13 and 14-17 and takes place in East Lansing, Mich.

“It’s a defensive camp and it’s very unique,” Weaver said. “We’ve had a lot of kids come to the camp and say they’ve learned so much. We go over the basic stuff as far as the art of the poke-check, proper dumps in the zone, keeping the puck away from the goalie.  It’s a lot easier for a coach to put a player on the ice and say, ‘Go player forward.’ But it’s a lot harder for them to go play defense.”

JR